help with leaf spring bolt

I am removing my stock springs for my lift and ran into a problem. I cannot get the passenger side front spring bolt out because the metal sleeve in bushing is seized to the bolt and when i turn the bolt, it's turning with it and pushing the bracket out. The bolt cannot come out by itself. I tried turning it as far as i could but the sleeve is pushing the bracket out very far. What are my options? The only thing i can think of is cutting the leaf spring wrap off, then cut the bushing off so i have access to the metal sleeve and then cut that off? I don't have anything small enough to get between the bracket to cut the metal sleeve. Maybe a dremel but not sure.

Every other bolt came out with no issues. Even the shock bolts came out with the impact very easily.

Use a sawsall or such and cut the bolt between the leaf and the frame on each side. Drop the leaf out, and grab whats left of the bolt with a pair of vice grips to remove it. Buy a new bolt.

If you have to re-use the leafs, use some penetrant, otherwise just toss them out with the old bolt stuck in there.

I grease my leaf spring bolts (not the threads though) when I install them.

yep
did that with both my lower control arm bolts up front.

sawzall solves all.

Well considering how much muscle it requires to turn the bolt right now, i doubt vice grips or even a pipe wrench could turn the remaining part of the bolt if i do cut it. I am using a 3 ft 3/4" socket wrench with my hi-jack handle on top of it for leverage plus my entire body weight just to turn the dang thing. no way grips are gonna turn it. It seems my only option is to cut the leaf off, remove the bushing, and then split open the sleeve. I can see a gap in the sleeve so i know it's not a fully closed sleeve. Maybe cut everything off the sleeve and wrap a pipe wrench on that and turn the bolt?

If you can- get a torch and carefully burn some of the rubber bushing out. Just enough to grab ahold of the sleeve with vise grips to keep it from turning. That's what we ended up doing when we had to change out leaf springs.

Screw it Out 1/4 turn, then IN 1/4 turn then back out
Out 1/2 turn, in 1/2 turn, then back out Etc Etc

It will often break the bolt loose from the bushing, Just going Out will make it tighter and tighter. JB is your friend. ~Ace~

Use a torch and get the bolt head red hot...I had the same problem with mine but that fixed it.

I had same issue and ended up tightening it and loosening it multiple times and then used a pry bar to put pressure on the eye while I loosened it.

~Ace~~ said:

Screw it Out 1/4 turn, then IN 1/4 turn then back out
Out 1/2 turn, in 1/2 turn, then back out Etc Etc

It will often break the bolt loose from the bushing, Just going Out will make it tighter and tighter. JB is your friend. ~Ace~

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It's already loose from the bushing. The metal sleeve is what's stuck to the bolt. The sleeve turns with the bolt inside the bushing so the sleeve is no longer connected to the bushing. the bolt would come out just fine if it wasn't rust-welded to the sleeve. I'm gonna try all these methods and see what happens. Thanks for the tips.

gradon said:

I had same issue and ended up tightening it and loosening it multiple times and then used a pry bar to put pressure on the eye while I loosened it.

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i may have to get my gf to be the "pry bar girl" cuz i don't think i can do both at teh same time by myself.

Do what Cal and 87Manche said. The reason it's so hard to turn is because of the turning resistance of the sleeve to the bushing, and if you've come out any distance at all, the sleeve against the bracket. I had the same problem with my stock trackbar bushing, it was almost impossible to turn until I cut the bushing and sleeve off, then it came out quite easily.

Daedalus454 said:

Do what Cal and 87Manche said. The reason it's so hard to turn is because of the turning resistance of the sleeve to the bushing, and if you've come out any distance at all, the sleeve against the bracket. I had the same problem with my stock trackbar bushing, it was almost impossible to turn until I cut the bushing and sleeve off, then it came out quite easily.

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I see what you are saying. I think it's more of the sleeve against the bracket than the bushing against the sleeve cuz i can slide the bushing back and forth on the sleeve with a pry bar pretty easily. I just got a can of oil-lube so i'm gonna spray that sucker down, pb it, then try. If not, then i'll try heat. If that fails, then i'll cut the bushing/spring off and use a pipe wrench on the sleeve while i turn the bolt. That's gotta work. My last option would be cutting it..mainly cuz i have a tiny black n decker sawzall that i don't think will even cut. That thing is so stupid cuz the blade pops off all the time.

I thought of this while trying to take a nap today. I could get a socket that's bigger than the bolt head and put it over the bolt so the socket is resting on the bracket and pound that with a BFH. maybe this'll have enough force to snap loose the sleeve from the bolt.

I ended up cutting my trackbar bushing all to bits with a cut-off wheel, then hitting the sleeve with a propane torch for 10 minutes or so, then grabbing it with vise grips and twisting the bolt with my nice long breaker bar, it came out okay.

FWIW, the best penetrating oils I have used are Kroil and Mouse Milk, I've always had better luck with those than with PB. But those tend to be pretty expensive.

I am a friend of PB, after being brought up on wd-40(it still smells better) and now you bring up two options that are better?

smae thing happened to me, instead of fighting with it, i just cut the bolt out, and put new bolts in place.

Use a cut off tool to cut the spring as close to the eye as you can. This should give access to the rubber bushing. The rubber bushing has a thin metal jacket around it, cut or peel it away to expose the rubber bushing. Now, with a razor blade, cut a pie shaped piece out of the rubber bushing down to the metal sleave at the heart of the bushing assembly. The problem is the sleave is rusted to the bolt. The metal sleave has a seam on it, turn the spring bolt till you see the seam. Use a chissel and hammer to break the seam and open up the sleave slightly. During this whole process, apply generous amounts of wd40 or penitrating oil of your choise. After the sleave is opened up, the bolt will come out with little effort. Cut the eye off the other end of the spring and insert this one leaf in your new spring pack to obtain an other half inch of lift, if you desire.

Ron Hyslop said:

Use a cut off tool to cut the spring as close to the eye as you can. This should give access to the rubber bushing. The rubber bushing has a thin metal jacket around it, cut or peel it away to expose the rubber bushing. Now, with a razor blade, cut a pie shaped piece out of the rubber bushing down to the metal sleave at the heart of the bushing assembly. The problem is the sleave is rusted to the bolt. The metal sleave has a seam on it, turn the spring bolt till you see the seam. Use a chissel and hammer to break the seam and open up the sleave slightly. During this whole process, apply generous amounts of wd40 or penitrating oil of your choise. After the sleave is opened up, the bolt will come out with little effort. Cut the eye off the other end of the spring and insert this one leaf in your new spring pack to obtain an other half inch of lift, if you desire.

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That's pretty much exactly what i was gonna do. My cut off wheel should be able to cut the leaf spring right? I hear it's hard to cut those.

I dunno about using my main leaf on the OME pack cuz it's kinda bent out of shape.

Thanks

muddeprived said:

That's pretty much exactly what i was gonna do. My cut off wheel should be able to cut the leaf spring right? I hear it's hard to cut those.

I dunno about using my main leaf on the OME pack cuz it's kinda bent out of shape.

Thanks

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yea they are a bitch to cut

Man that was some work. It was hard to cut through the leaf spring but i did it and used 3 cut off discs in the process. I used a dremel on the bushing to cut it in 1/2 and that was a stupid thing to do (i couldn't find my razor blade). The dremel melted the bushing while it was cutting and spit black rubber all over the place, including on me. That stuff does NOT come off easily. I got down to the metal sleeve and pounded it a couple times with a screwdriver (in the opening slot). I put a pipe wrench on it and turned the bolt and it broke loose but i couldn't unscrew teh bolt out of the sleeve so i had to open up the sleeve with a fat flathead and finally got it out. What a pain but i kept my streak of un-broken bolts going. I didn't snap a single bolt during all that suspension work. Quite a feat compared to my TJ.

I realized i have the same problem with both upper shackle bolts. They can't swing freely cuz they are seized to the bolt so i didn't bother taking them off. I don't have time to go through cutting them up to pieces so i left em and going to run just the OME springs with 31" tires. I will probably rub like hell but i'll bumpstop it for now.

Whenever it warms up and i feel like spending 12 hours on just two bolts, then i will work on the upper shackle bolts.

thanks for all your help.

What happens when you use a grinder to cut off the bushings then you realize the metal sleeve is rust/welded to the chassis. Mine will not budge, period. It pretty much sucks right now.